Another List Completed - Joe's KC Bar-B-Que

The other day, my father finished his lifelong MLB cities goal by finally going to a Kansas City Royals game. As it turns out, he also completed another list as well - the four major barbecue regions.

As some of you may know (or can look up on Wikipedia), there are 4 major BBQ regions:

1. The Carolinas
2. Memphis
3. Texas
4. Kansas City

And now, my father's been to all of them.

• My father went down to Raleigh, North Carolina in 2009 where he had some pulled pork at The Pit.
• In 2013, my parents and I went down to Memphis, Tennessee where we had some pork ribs at Central BBQ.
• In 2014, my family went down to Austin, Texas where we had some delicious brisket at Black's Barbecue in nearby Lockhart.
• And now in 2015, we all had the chance to enjoy some delicious Kansas City barbecue at three different venues.

Completely unbeknownst to my father, he ended up going to the exact same barbecue restaurants that were listed in this KC Sun Times article - Tastiest Kansas City Barbecue Joints (Oct 2014). Seriously. What were the odds?

Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que
This "gas station" was our first stop after we landed in Kansas City Airport. In addition to selling gas and having a small convenience store, Joe's KC Bar-B-Que also had a full sit down restaurant serving some tasty 'cue. Joe's was actually called Oklahoma Joe's, but obviously changed it's name to be more KC-centric.

My father (in typical Asian fashion) did research before our trip and found out that Joe's would be closed on Sunday's and for Memorial Day. Therefore, the only day we could try Joe's would be right after we flew in.

Since it was just after 1:30PM on Saturday, we feared there might have been a wait. Yeah, you could say there was a bit of line. You can see my mother and me in the second photo on the left.

The wait was pretty long - about 2 hours. No kidding. I felt like those idiot tourists I'd see in Madison Square Park waiting for a Shackburger. But we were patient and had no where else to go. I was pretty well behaved, though my little toddler legs started to get tired after about 90 minutes, so my father had to hold me for the last half hour or so while we were waiting inside.

That gave my mother ample time to review the menu, which also had a Kid's Menu.

After we finally made to the front of the line, we placed our order and slid down to the cashier to pay. By the time my mother and I took our seats, my father was already coming with the first tray of food. My father ordered the 2 Meat Platter (half rack of ribs and brisket) while my mother had the Z-Man Sandwich (beef brisket, smoked provolone cheese, topped with crispy onion rings on a toasted Kaiser roll).

 How was it? See for yourself...